Monday, March 30, 2009

Well the opening for imoca's inaugural exhibition titled THIS MUST BE THE PLACE (Curated by Paul Murnaghan and Sally Timmons) occurred on Friday 27th. IMOCA asked a number of artist-run organizations to consider the question, how do we think? We ( 126 ) responded with an installation based on the idea of turning the inside outside.The installation represents the thinking at 126, constructive and subversive. It takes the traditional notion of the gallery space and challenges it...as if everything beyond the confines of the gallery is a work-in-progress. So here are a few pics of the well attended opening.

Trying to keep everything authentic.Maybe instead of Royal Dutch we should have brought in some of the all to common (for Galway anyway) broken bottle of Buckfast.

So how did the individual organizations respond to the question? The Good Hatchery had a visually commanding presence. I read themes of collection, dispersal and preserving, from their work and think that sums up there modus operandi quite well. I have a soft spot for all things wood so I was rather fond of this piece. Monster Truck recreated the interior of their gallery and held an Art swap. The swap was a great idea reflecting for me at least a community based platform. They had some great pieces in the swap and I regret not participating. Blackletter's contribution was wonderfully simple. A painted chalk board that allowed for open and continual participation from the audience. Which is an appropriate reflection of what Blackletter is. In their own words; Blackletter provides platforms for artists to communicate, exchange, document and publicize. A few of the organizations responses to the question, either didnt address the question at all or did it rather poorly. ART/not art, who answered the question with a question in their statement was one that I had difficulty with. In viewing the piece I could not find the connection or relation of the physical construction to the question posed by the curators. Aesthetically the installation was challenging and interactive. I liked the way the piece commanded the space but beyond that I was left still trying to decipher the link.

The Work itself - A short artist statement

I paint / build /create works about that which makes up the individual experience, my experience. I work with that which informs us as to who we are. Family history, false history, narrative, regional constructs, the visual and the physical that we surround ourselves with.I am interested in how one connects all the little pieces and in the end builds a personal, historical and fluid sense of self. A sense, which both separates and connects the individual to the communal. At the end of the day, what I am trying to find through my art, is a sense of place.